eastshoredem

Very simply solution to solve the problem of SS solvency in perpetuity: drastically raise, or eliminate the cap. Those who make up to $110,000 pay the SS tax on 100% of their income. Someone who makes $500,000 pays it on only the first $110,000, and nothing on the rest. Someone who makes $5,000,000, or $50,000,000, or $5,000,000,000 pays the SS tax on only the first $110,000, and NOTHING on the rest! Except even that isn't accurate, because much, in some cases all of the income of the most wealthy members of American society has been loopholed into categories that pay only 15% tax, and NOT ONE CENT in SS tax, or Medicare tax. For example, there are some hedge fund managers who have annual income not in the millions, not in the hundreds of millions, but annual income in the Billions, who do not pay a cent of SS tax on those billions. Remove those loopholes, and make them pay the SS on ALL income.

I can just hear certain middle class fools saying to themselves now, "but, but, but, that would mean that when I make billions, I would have to pay the tax on it, so I will vote for Republicans who will protect the wealthy from having to pay those taxes" even though I am now struggling to get by.

Once again, her adoring acolytes at the Advance smear Nicole's photogenic mug all over the paper, and hype her to high heaven. Too bad she hasn't actually ACCOMPLISHED anything they can tout, isn't it?

I feel very sorry for her family, since they will have to deal with the person who probably murdered her (the husband) at her funeral.

It almost always is the husband or wife or boyfriend or girlfriend when someone is murdered, unless the person is a career criminal, or in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are so many clues that this is again one of those times when it is the husband.

You, Malliotakis, are a disgusting demagogue, using typical Republican tactics of pandering to the hate, bigotry and prejudice of the idiots who support you against the usual Republican scapegoats, poor [brown and black] people!

I thought you were just a useless cipher, whose principal "achievement" was getting your photogenic mug splashed across the front page of the Advance by your adoring acolyte, but now you have revealed the depths to which you are willing to sink to get votes.

Tell me, Nicole, what are the factual statistics on how many users of food stamps spend them on "booze, cigarettes, and strippers"? Then tell me, how many of those using food stamps are CHILDREN AND SENIORS?!? Food stamps don't even provide enough to feed a family adequately, they have to depend on charity food pantries and soup kitchens to supplement what they get, so their children don't starve!

Of course, many of those struggling to get by with food stamps are the families of our TROOPS overseas! While the government has TRILLIONS to spend on useless junk from defense contractors, they don't provide our men and women in service, and their families, with a living income. Did you know, Malliotakis, that when deployed overseas, our troops are charged RENT on their "accommodations" even if that "accommodation" is just a tent or a hole in the ground? That rent is deducted from their income, leaving their families left behind with even less money on which to survive.

If you had a shred of decency, Malliotakis, you would be ashamed of your demagoguery!

I wonder how many of these dumb clucks actually will benefit from the Affordable Care Act? I wonder how many of them are on Social Security and Medicare, and don't realize that the interests that are pulling their strings and manipulating them intend to wipe out both Social Security and Medicare?

Thank you, Assemblyman Cusick, and Senator Lanza. It is a good thing that we have at least some elected officials on Staten Island who can accomplish something other than getting their photo in the paper.

This is a start, but it is still too much for those who do not make several trips a month over those bridges.

"Cuomo credited state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island), Assemblyman Michael Cusick (D-Mid-Island) and Foye for teaming to produce a workable and fair alternative to the current plan for the borough's residential E-ZPass drivers."

It still is an outrageous charge, so that the PA can use our tolls to subsidize oligarch Larry Silverstein at the World Trade Center. All of New York State's "authorities" need to be stripped of power.

Try telling this garbage to anyone who lived through the Great Depression, SCAMardella! Tell it to someone who suffered through Hoover's inaction, and was rescued by FDR!

At the end of World War II, due to the expenses of getting this country out of the Depression and the expenses of the war, the National Dept was the equivalence of 30 TRILLION dollars in today's dollars. Eisenhower got rid of that debt by raising taxes on the wealthy. Good idea, it worked. But today, those who do the bidding of the wealthy (the Republicans) won't raise their masters' tax by a cent, they rather let the poor and middle class suffer.

No, it doesn't work that way in the Senate, anyone who is informed about the NYS Legislature would understand why.

The Democrats have a SUPERMAJORITY in the State Assembly, enough of a majority to override vetoes without a single Republican vote.

The Republicans' majority in the State Senate, on the other hand, is tottering on the brink, at any time it could be switched to a Democratic majority, something that is inevitable as the Republican voting upstate districts lose population, and the Democratic metropolitan area gains population. The Senate Republicans also often have to bargain with the Democrats to get things done; all that is needed, for example, is for a couple of Republicans to be out sick, and the Republicans would not be able to accomplish a thing without the help of the Democrats.

Senator Savino also is part of an independent caucus, and as a result, is able to CHAIR committees, and SPONSOR legislation, something that no Republican in the State Assembly will be able to do, ever.

Assemblyman Michael Cusick is not only part of the Supermajority, he has the most seniority in the State Legislature of any member from Staten Island, and he has a long list of accomplishments for his constituents and the rest of Staten Island.

The voters of Staten Island already were stupid enough to replace someone who had sponsored legislation that passed into law, and brought back resources for her district (Janele Hyer-Spencer) with someone whose primary accomplishment is taking nice photos -- just don't get between her and a camera if you value your life. Malliotakis will NEVER sponsor a bill that gets passed, and she will NEVER bring any appreciable amount of revenue back to her district. Anyone who knows how the State Legislature works knows that these are the facts. Now self serving political operatives are trying to replace another of the most accomplished elected representatives from SI with someone will be able to do absolutely nothing for his district. Are the voters stupid enough to fall for this again?

Read the article! "But it was ASSEMBLYMAN MICHAEL CUSICK (D-Mid-Island), Pirozzolo's opponent, and state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) who passed the law that got the bus service restored. . . .When the law was passed, the Advance praised Cusick and Lanza, saying that Cusick had done the "heavy lifting in the DOE-friendly Assembly" to get it passed."

Please explain how "Apparently, he did more for Staten Island, not as a representative than Cusick did as a representative." Given the FACTS, you make no sense whatsoever. Pirozzolo did little to nothing, while Cusick was the one who actually did accomplish it -- and that makes it obvious that the people who are giving the credit to Pirozzolo have an agenda that has nothing to do with what is best for the people of Staten Island.

At best, there is partisan politics at play with that union endorsement, those making the decision for the endorsement are jettisoning the facts and what is best for SI for pure self serving political expediency. I wonder if the members of that union realize how they are being used to advance someone's political career at their own expense?

These people are morons! They give the credit to someone who had very little to do with it, instead of THE PERSON WHO WROTE THE LEGISLATION?????

That tells me that there are other factors at play here, for instance people getting paid off.

Not only did Pirozzolo NOT accomplish getting the bus service, having a Republican member of the State Assembly is like having an empty seat. Straniere was there for 22 years, and the only thing he did was hand out certificates honoring people. He never sponsored a single piece of legislation that made it to the floor of the Assembly for a vote. Neither did Lou Tobacco, who has been there since 2007, and is throwing in the towel out of frustration. Forget Nicole "CHEESE!" Malliotakis, who sends out campaign literature taking credit for "helping" to pass various legislation, because not only has she never gotten a single piece of legislation she personally sponsored out of committee, much less to the floor of the Assembly for a vote, SHE NEVER WILL.

People complain about how Staten Island is the "stepchild" and doesn't get its fair share of the revenue and projects. Well, what do you expect, when the morons vote for Republicans for legislative bodies that have super majorities of Democrats?

If they prefer someone just because he is a Republican, over someone who has years of seniority and a long string of ACCOMPLISHMENTS and SUCCESSES in getting things done not only for his district, but for the Island as a whole, they deserve to get the shaft.

These people are morons! They give the credit to someone who had very little to do with it, instead of THE PERSON WHO WROTE THE LEGISLATION?????

That tells me that there are other factors at play here, for instance people getting paid off.

Not only did Pirozzolo NOT accomplish getting the bus service, having a Republican member of the State Assembly is like having an empty seat. Straniere was there for 22 years, and the only thing he did was hand out certificates honoring people. He never sponsored a single piece of legislation that made it to the floor of the Assembly for a vote. Neither did Lou Tobacco, who has been there since 2007, and is throwing in the towel out of frustration. Forget Nicole "CHEESE!" Malliotakis, who sends out campaign literature taking credit for "helping" to pass various legislation, because not only has she never gotten a single piece of legislation she personally sponsored out of committee, much less to the floor of the Assembly for a vote, SHE NEVER WILL.

People complain about how Staten Island is the "stepchild" and doesn't get its fair share of the revenue and projects. Well, what do you expect, when the morons vote for Republicans for legislative bodies that have super majorities of Democrats?

If they prefer someone just because he is a Republican, over someone who has years of seniority and a long string of ACCOMPLISHMENTS and SUCCESSES in getting things done not only for his district, but for the Island as a whole, they deserve to get the shaft.

The "gripe" is that these cars with out of state licence plates belong to people who do not live out of state, they just register their cars fraudulently out of state to get out of paying New York State licence registration fees and taxes. Because of their fraud, the rest of us have to pay higher fees.

This is such a crock, I don't know how SCAMardella can keep a straight face while dishing it out!

There are those with unlimited resource, billionaires, who are using hundreds of millions of dollars (chump change to them) to buy offices and legislators to do their bidding, at the expense of everyone else in this country. They are in the process of changing our democracy into a fascist oligarchy, where the extremely wealthy rule, and no one else has a voice.

SCAMardella wants to remove what little restrictions are left, now that the oligarchs' good little prostitutes on the Supreme Court have ruled that "corporations are people," and that spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy legislators and legislation beneficial to themselves (at our expense) is "speech"!

A perfect example of how the uber wealthy have abused their wealth to buy political office is the way oligarch Bloomberg used his pocket change millions to buy himself a toy -- control over the City of New York -- to impose his will over the objections of the people. He even was able to manipulate an illegal third term, in spite of the term limits that the voters of New York City TWICE voted into law.

Take away the power of the billionaires to buy elected officials and elections, and return our democracy!